Methodologically Becoming: Power,knowledge and team research

This article explores the path of methodological and epistemological negotiation travelled by a team of four geographers conducting research among people with transnational connections between northern New Jersey and El Salvador. Having illustrated that all data are contextual, feminist scholars have explored the power relations in which data collection is embedded in order to situate knowledge. The relationship between the dynamics of research teams and the broader political struggles with which they engage, however, remains a blind spot within feminist field methods and writing strategies deployed to 'see accountably'. The authors argue that there is an undertheorised relationship between the politics of academic research projects and the broader political movements with which they engage that may serve as a fertile intersection for feminist research. They explore relationships between team, field, and institutions in the context of negotiating difference among team members and their aspirations for the project. The article contributes to discussions of power, knowledge construction, and the politics of conducting fieldwork as a team by relaying experiences both from the perspective of individuals on the team and the team as a whole. The authors depict their objectives, successes, failures, and research politics; all part of a process of methodological becoming.     

Multi-sectoral Cluster Modelling: The Evaluation of Scottish Enterprise Cluster Policy

This article describes the ex post cluster evaluation framework being developed by Scottish Enterprise. It focuses primarily on the macro level evaluation and, in particular, on the use of multi-sectoral modelling techniques to identify the effects of cluster policy on key indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment and competitiveness. The Scottish Input-Output (I-O) table is a key element in this approach. The strengths and weaknesses of I-O data, both as a basis for this analysis and as a means of identifying important intra-cluster linkages are explored. Further, the article describes methods for visual representation of the linkages identified using such a method.     

Resisting the creation of forgotten places: artistic production in Toronto neighbourhoods

This article analyzes semi-structured interviews with contemporary visual artists from Toronto, Canada, to explore the relationship between artists, memory, and place. The focus of the article is on three neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto that have the potential to become forgotten places of artistic production: Yorkville, King Street West and The Junction. Through an analysis of artists' spatially grounded narratives about these three neighbourhoods, I reveal how the intense emotional and material connections that artists have to places have the potential to challenge the loss of collective urban memory. This article contributes to intersecting literatures on neighbourhood change, artistic production and the importance of vernacular memory in urban cultural geography.     

Localism and radicalization in North Africa: local factors and the development of political Islam in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya

Over the past three decades North Africa has experienced a wave of Islamic activism. From the emergence of groups such as Shabiba Islamiya in Morocco in the 1970s to the recent appearance of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the region has been home to a plethora of different Islamist movements, each with its own national characteristics. As such the region has displayed a general propensity to Islamist activism. However, certain areas within each North African state have proven particularly receptive to the ideology of political Islam. Although this trend is by no means universal, given the strong appeal of the Islamist ideology that has been able to transcend geographical boundaries, these areas have nonetheless been a key source of recruitment not only for the more moderate strands of the Islamist opposition, but also to the militant movements and networks that espouse violence. As such there would appear to be a correlation between localism and Islamist activism in North Africa. Focusing on Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, this article will examine some of these local issues and will argue that in order to understand better the causes of radicalization in the region, the rise of Islamism in North Africa should be considered within the broader historical context of political and cultural resistance by certain peripheral regional elements to a dele-gitimized and stagnated central authority.     

The ‘banana’ wall,former Export Dock,West India Docks,Canary Wharf,London E14

SUMMARY: A standing building survey in 2001 recorded a section of the former southern wall of the West India (middle) Export Dock, in East London, built between 1803 and 1806. This revealed the extent of skilful engineering involved in construction of the wall; the main brick build incorporated a curving or banana-shaped section, both for structural stability and to accommodate the profile of ships’ hulls. This was laid onto a wooden frame, previously unrecorded, for which coniferous timbers were used, supported by a series of wooden piles, driven into the natural gravel. The wall is also the earliest known example of reinforced brickwork. This new study provides considerable additional information on the construction of the wall, and of Georgian engineering in this form.     

Heavenly Visions: Otago Colonists’ Concepts of the Afterlife

This paper explores popular beliefs about heaven and hell in the largely Presbyterian colony of Otago, New Zealand, during the second half of the nineteenth century. The heresy trials of two prominent clerics resulted, in large part, from the questioning of traditional doctrines on hell, particularly as they related to the fate of dead infants. Although fierce debate surrounded these trials, the diaries, letters, and headstones of Otago residents reveal a pervasive popular belief in heaven as the afterlife destination of all children and most adults. This reflected a growing focus on the innocence, rather than the original sin, of children, coupled with an increasing emphasis on the loving, rather than judgmental, characteristics of God. While clergy emphasized God's presence as the great pleasure of the afterlife, popular visions of heaven clung instead to the hope of joyful reunions with family and friends.     

White western teenage girls and urban space: Challenging Hollywood's representations

This article explores fictional cinematic representations of the world of white female adolescents in the USA. It argues that Hollywood has disseminated an oversimplified image of teenage girlhood that reinforces the notion that girls participate only peripherally in the daily life of exterior urban spaces. An analysis of nine Hollywood teen movies, from the 1980s and the 1990s, reveals a limited palette of spaces appropriated by predominantly white middle-class American adolescent girls. The analysis, within the broad categories of retreat space, liminal space, and interaction space, suggests alternatives for understanding how adolescent girls use urban space.     

RESIDENTS' EVALUATIVE STRUCTURES OF NORTHERN MANITOBA MINING COMMUNITIES

The effects of community differences on place evaluation are examined with reference to residents' evaluations of two contrasting northern Manitoba mining towns: Thompson and Leaf Rapids. An adapted form of repertory grid technique is employed to reveal residents' cognitive structures, while a multidimensional scaling technique is used to uncover the underlying basis of place preference. The findings disclose important differences between the evaluative dimensions employed to assess the two communities. Although these differences appear to be largely context specific, it is proposed that 'size' and 'location' may represent common super-ordinate dimensions used in the evaluation of northern mining towns.
En se servant de deux villes septentrionales du Manitoba, Thompson et Leaf Rapids, deja remarquables par leurs contrastes naturels, on examine, sur une base comparative, les différences manifestées par les habitants, quand ils évaluent leur propre communauté. On utilise une forme modifiée de la technique de réseau répertorial pour révéler les structures cognitives des habitants, et on emploie aussi une technique d'étalonnage à plusieurs dimensions pour découvrir les critères de base qui déterminent les préférences exprimées à l'égard d'un endroit. les résultats de l'enquete demontrent des divergences importantes entre les critères qui se révèlent dans l'évaluation de chaque communauté. Bien que les divergences ont l'apparence d'ětre produites par des environnements spécifiques, on suggère que la grandeur relative d'une communauté et sa situation géographique peuvent représenter des critères communs utilisés dans l'évaluation d'un centre minier septentrional, par ses habitants.